Alcohol possibly from Prohibition era found in walls of Queen Anne home

A Seattle homeowner made a surprising discovery when she found a secret stash of alcohol, possibly from the Prohibition era, in the walls.

“It’s really cool to find these little time capsules,” said Jenna Walden.

The craftsman on 2447 4th Avenue West in the Queen Anne neighborhood was built in 1910.

Walden is no stranger to restoring historic homes and finding little treasures from years past.

But during a demo, as she prepared to make the home available for sale in October, even she was surprised to find a secret stash hidden in the walls for decades. She discovered bottle after bottle of what she believes is booze from the Prohibition era when the manufacturing and sales of alcohol were outlawed.

Walden said bottles of all kinds were used to store the homebrew — even old ketchup bottles. In all, she said she found about 30 bottles.

“So it was very exciting and a lot of speculation about what was in them,” Walden said.

She even hosted a tasting party for the vintage homebrew. And they all lived to tell about it. She said it tasted like a cider or brandy with a strong smell of vinegar.

“It’s pretty unfiltered and you could tell it was desperate times to get alcohol back then,” laughed Walden.

There were also some notes left behind which Walden thinks means the booze was bottled in 1933.

“The working theory is that they’re still here because prohibition ended in December 1933 and they didn’t need to hide it anymore,” said Walden.

Now she’s hoping she can pass this piece of history on to someone else.

“If there is a local historian who maybe knows a better way to curate and store these,” said Walden.

Cox Media Group